Ballah immediately issued forms for the trappers to sign, which stated in part: "We will never do business with anyone who uses inhumane or cruel methods in trapping animals...We have been in the business of import of nonhuman primates for nearly fifty years and we have never knowingly done business with anyone who used inhumane trapping."
According to the e-mail correspondence, Ballah ultimately canceled the baboon order and worked with Howard to find a reputable trapping company. By 2001, Charles River had gotten out of the baboon business altogether.
The first rule of Monkey House: There is no Monkey House. Charles River likes its primate center low-key.
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While the company still imports cynomolgus monkeys, even that practice might be decreasing; U.S. Department of the Interior records show that the company imported 3,455 in 2004 and only 1,670 in 2005.
And, with one glaring exception, USDA inspection reports since September 2003 have not shown any significant violations. In December 2005, an inspector found sutures that were past their expiration date in the surgery room. The problem was "corrected immediately."
I had to FOIA the inspection reports, which took a month and revealed little. Actually, as far as inspection reports go, they're lame. There is no checklist, so there is no indication of what the inspector was looking for. Generally, USDA inspectors enforce the Animal Welfare Act, which states that some animals need to live in clean, well-lit cages before they're hauled off to be force-fed meth or have their eyes sewn shut.
Furthermore, violators don't have to fear stiff penalties. According to a 2005 USDA Inspector General's audit, a zoo in Brownsville was fined $5,600 for violations that killed five gorillas and a rhinoceros. The fine had been reduced from $22,500.
Rabbit Urine Punch:
1 large can pineapple juice
1 bottle white cranberry w/raspberry fruit juice
1 liter ginger ale
Chill each ingredient. Mix in punch bowl when ready to serve. Can double recipe for larger groups. Note: The pineapple juice provides the cloudiness of rabbit urine, but any other clear/yellow fruit juice can be used as the other juice in the recipe. -- American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, "Animal Research Fair Planning Guide"
Great science does not depend on monkeys alone.
Many biomedical companies are hunting for animal alternatives, including better computerized research models. To further this initiative, Charles River created the Charles River Laboratories Foundation, which, according to the Charles River Web site, promotes humane care of laboratory animals and "advances the three R's of animal welfare: reduction, refinement and replacement."
To that end, the foundation awards an annual prize to a researcher who shines in those areas. This year's award consists of $2,500 and a plaque.
On the flip side, Charles River in 2004 gave $100,000 to the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science to launch www.kids4research.org, a brightly colored Web site that brings the goodness of animal research into the schools. The site's "Fun Stuff" page includes instructions on how to make an actual mouse-shaped computer mouse. The Web site states: "Then, whenever you have questions on the use of animals in biomedical research, our Kids-4-Research website address will be right at your fingertips!" (This is in line with other fun kid stuff that AALAS markets, like a coloring book called "The Adventures of Larry the Lab Mouse.")
The kids4research Web site also has a Q&A section on the debate over animal testing. Sample question: "Do the experiments cause pain to the animals?" Sample answer: "Federal laws, including the Animal Welfare Act, regulate the elimination and alleviation of pain."
What the site doesn't mention is that, thanks to lobbying by biomedical interest groups, mice, rats and birds are not considered "animals" under the Animal Welfare Act. Which is to say, Larry the Lab Mouse is fucked.
One of the most active of these interest groups is the Foundation for Biomedical Research, a spin-off of the National Association for Biomedical Research, which was created at the behest of Charles River Laboratories. According to a Wall Street Journal article that animal rights groups love to quote, NABR was born in Charles River founder Henry Foster's living room.
Both interest groups keep track of violence propagated by animal rights extremists. Some of the incidents are alarming. In 2001, the marketing director of the British drug-testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences was pepper-sprayed on the doorstep of his home, in front of his wife and three-year-old daughter. Extremists also hounded the company's accountants, Deloitte & Touche, by breaking windows, gluing doors closed and constantly calling family members. Deloitte subsequently ended its four-year relationship with Huntingdon.
In 2003, pipe bombs detonated in two San Francisco-area companies with ties to Huntingdon. No one was injured. In Seattle the year before, extremists tossed smoke bombs into the offices of other companies with ties to Huntingdon.
This makes it a little easier to understand why Charles River isn't so excited to talk to the media. And, with the exception of a 1991 Houston Chronicle story about a few dudes in gorilla suits who protested shortly after the facility opened that year, it has avoided media exposure.
There have been no subsequent reports of organized protesting since that time. Maybe that's because the company has done such a good job about pretending that it doesn't import hundreds of large animal models into Houston every year. It reminds me of something Iva, an alleged employee of Charles River says in one of the company's uplifting promotional videos: "Everything we do is very visible. And I believe that all the people who work here understand that."
